Date: 1681
"In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. / A fiery Soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay; / And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay."
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1688
"I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun."
preview | full record— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)
Date: 1691
"I was nothing but all Flame and Fire, and the red-hot Thoughts glared about my Brains at such a rate, and if visible, wou'd, I fancy, have made just such a dreadful Appearance as the Window of a Glass-house discovers in a dark Night--viz. a parcel of stragling fiery Globes marching about and hiz...
preview | full record— Dunton, John (1659–1732)
Date: 1693
"Some Glances of a State that's past I find, / Take up the Corners of my thoughtful Mind, / As cover'd Embers when they're blown, create / A Flame, and represent my former State."
preview | full record— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)
Date: 1700, 1702
"O could I think that he had ever known / My hidden flame, shame and confusion / Would force my Virgin soul to leave her mansion, / And certain Death ensue."
preview | full record— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)
Date: 1710, 1734
"They indeed, who hold the soul of man to be only a thin vital flame, or system of animal spirits, make it perishing and corruptible as the body, since there is nothing more easily dissipated than such a being, which it is naturally impossible should survive the ruin of the tabernacle, wherein it...
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1713
"Away the Skilful Doctor comes / Of Recipes and Med'cines full, / To check the giddy Whirl of Nature's Fires, / If so th' unruly Case requires; / Or with his Cobweb-cleansing Brooms / To sweep and clear the over-crouded Scull, / If settl'd Spirits flag, and make the Patient dull."
preview | full record— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)